Beautiful Game Turned Ugly
The greatest test of a civilization is it's ability to keep one idiot from changing history. Unfortunately, that happened last night in Denmark. The soccer world cup qualifier match between Sweden and Denmark, who haven't met in international play in 30 years, was called off when a Danish fan bumb-rushed the ref. Denmark has just come back from being down 3-0 to tie, there was a player scuffle and the German ref called a penalty shot for Sweden. While this seems not to be the biggest deal, one game with one idiot will shape the way two neighbor countries think of each other. Or, at least, give them something to talk about.
Anywho, thanks Thomas for hosting a post-Reboot match party. I'll have more on Reboot after reflection.
Just a few clarifications: 1) it wasn't a World Cup qualifier it was a European Championship qualifier, 2) the last time we met Sweden in an international game was during the 2004 European Championship in Portugal.
With that out of the way let me get onto the interesting bit. As far as I know the Danes don't blame the Swedes in any way, how could we? However there's plenty of blame being tossed around localy. A lot blame the idiot that entered the pitch, plenty blame the lax security, some blame Poulsen for more or less costing us the game anyway, and a few blame the ref for prematurely calling of the game however I haven't yet met anyone who blames the Swedes.
Sure there's plenty to talk about but I find it hard to believe that it's going to change the way we think about each other, there's simply to much history for such a (in the grand scheme of things) insignificant incident to change that. However it has caused at least parts of the Danish football supporters to think about outselves and what this might mean besides the obvious punishment from UEFA.
KJ
Posted by: Claus KJ | June 04, 2007 at 08:49 PM
what a dingdong for sure. i can tell you how it ends with sweden as the victor ;) its your old bud from high school believe it or not. in a related field and came across your blog. lets catch up old friend.
Posted by: Kelly Rogers | June 05, 2007 at 11:43 AM
KJ, thanks for clarifications. So, did the Swedish guy swing first?
Kelly, so good to reconnect...
Posted by: Ross Mayfield | June 05, 2007 at 10:20 PM